FoodNet

Mazdaznan encyclopedia of dietetics and home cook book

1909

Page 39

Presented as published in 1909. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
If fruits disagree with you *t is because of your aciduous condition, in which case your stomach no longer separates your food, but leaves the operations to the aciduous side of the digestive apparatus, leaving the salts or minerals un- digested, forcing crystallization upon the acids themselves, consequently weakening the functional operations of the stomach and its relative organs. A little fast and until absolutely hungry, in which case an old crust of bread and a sound apple will taste better than the much lauded Christ- mas dinner, assures a means unto a cure. Such fasts re- peated once a week or even oftener will teach one that in reality we deny ourselves nothing of the joys and pleasures of life except — disease. FRUITS, FRESH, DRIED AND CANNED. Uncooked fresh fruits should not be flavored; fruits without a decided flavor characteristic to their kind are not wholesome and contain no remedial value, but may be re- deemed and used to a great advantage if combined with wholesome fruits and when steamed. A very wholesome dish for invalids is fruits cooked in their own juice with a little butter and steamed in a double boiler. Baked, also fried fruits, may be used to a great advan- tage, especially by invalids. Dried fruits can be redeemed to their natural flavor and sweetness by first washing them thoroly but very quickly in lukewarm water, allowed to stand in cold water for four or more hours and then allowed to simmer slowly in the water absorbed. Tha use of sugar should be in the form of white syrup, honey or molasses, but the less of it used the better. To increase the natural sweetness of the fruit it is best to use a stick of cinnamon bark, vanilla beans and the rind of lemon. When fruit is found to be too sweet after steaming, re- deem it by using the juice of a slowly baked lemon. Dried fruits, simply boiled and sugared without an op- 73 portunity to develop their original natural fullness and then sugar-coated, may be termed a boarding-house dish and are unfit for food, as such a dish lacks the medicinal value for which it was intended by Nature. For the ordinarily healthy the fruits of the local market or clime suffice to perform the natural function, and only at change of season should one in good health indulge in a radical change, subsisting on foreign fruits for three to ten days, and until he hankers after the usual regime. But when under the weather he should at once resort to foreign fruits and a change of menu. Dried fruits, altho of another clime, do not possess the same amount of medicinal value and the effect is not at all the same as in fresh fruits. Canned fruits are more suitable for garnishing and should be served on toast, biscuits or flaked grains. They serve as an excellent repast and may be used to flavor grain and nut dishes. The food value itself will be credited to the dish served with. To redeem the canned fruits to their medicinal value in a measure they are to be served in thoroly aged liquors, and should be eaten with sun-cooked or electrically pre- pared cereals, with abundant rich, whipped cream. In the absence of cream canned fruits should be flavored with vanilla or cinnamon. In the absence of liquors spice them with a dash of mace, saffron and cloves, using cream.